Red Dead Online: How to Start the Naturalist Role
If you want to become a Naturalist in Red Dead Online, you'll need to raise money and head to a specific location. We'll show you how to do that.
The newest role for Red Dead Online, the Naturalist is a two-pronged path about either researching or hunting rare animals across the wilds of America. We'll show you how to start the Naturalist role here, as well as how much it'll cost you to do so.
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How to Start the Naturalist Role in Red Dead Online
You can start the Naturalist role in Red Dead Online by heading to the town of Strawberry and looking for the yellow icon on the map with the magnifying glass. This'll bring you Strawberry's Welcome Center, a large building that doubles as a hotel, found to the left of the Sheriff's office.
Once you go inside, it'll automatically switch to a cutscene where you're introduced to the main two characters associated with the role: Harriet Davenport, a very intense person who seems to walk a fine line between science and mysticism, and Gus Macmillan, a blunt and pragmatic hunter who views animals as commodities.
At the end of the cutscene, Harriet will approach you and offer to sell you an Animal Field Guide, which gives information about animals you encounter, similar to the single player game. Buying this will enable you to start the role properly and engage in missions and quests that can earn you money and new items.
There's no shortage of Red Dead guides to help you master the Wild West here at USG, whether it's in the single player campaign or online mode. You can find them all here at our Red Dead Guides Hub.
Naturalist Role Price
The Naturalist role is one of Red Dead Online's most pricey purchases and will cost you 25 gold bars to access yourself ($9.99/£8.99 in real money). However, you can earn gold bars in-game too, and we've laid out how here. You can decline to pay at the end of the cutscene - simply return to the yellow magnifying glass whenever you have the gold to buy the Field Guide and continue.
Why not take a break from saving/splattering all the critters and check out some of USG's Red Dead content? Check out Nadia's thoughts on how Red Dead uses Herr Strauss to examine prejudice, or take a look at Mike's study of how the Red Dead PC port made Arthur Morgan into a bumbling, sharpshooting immortal.